My three-year-old Daisy unfolded laundry faster than I could fold it--and that was "helping." My one-year-old Birdie sucked her thumb so hard, it wrinkled. And my heart and mind held the raw emotion of a mother. That's when I finally ripped a page from my bible. It wasn't one filled with verse, but rather a full-color illustration of a family, complete with toddlers, praying for deliverance while cowering before lions. Ever since I received that bible, as a nine-year-old, the picture chilled me. That family, heaven-bound or not, stood moments from a public shredded death. And finally, when I saw the picture through mother eyes, I had enough of looking at it. The bible contains a lot of darkness, most of it isn't illustrated. This week, I found a verse so graphic I want to tear it out. Psalms 137:9 "Happy shall be he who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!" Brutality, savage warfare, autrocity and oppression defined the time in which this psalm was written. Nations were annihilated or assimilated into oblivion. But knowing the facts doesn't soften the blow. I will not rip the page today, but I acknowledge its enduring truth. It is possible to push good people so hard that they lose themselves in bleak and vengeful darkness and believe hatred and violence is what God wants.
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